Bo Carter resigns from Big 12

[Hed bust]

Saw this in Dallas Morning News over weekend
He tells me they "don't want media relations people in the Big 12 offices"
What a shame they've evolved to that
-------------------------
Perpetually contrite SWC-Big 12 mainstay Bo Carter movin' on

By Kevin Sherrington
Dallas Morning News (Sunday Brunch, July 30, 2006)

After 20 years with the Southwest Conference and Big 12, Bo Carter professes no regrets in abandoning his latest post as historian.

And if you know Bo, the sentiment might surprise you.

He's been sorry about everything else.

The most deferential man ever to work in the SWC once apologized to a woman after she ran into his parked car at a party ... concluded a 4 a.m. call from a sports writer with, "Thanks for calling. Call any time." ... sends thank-you notes for thank-you notes ... watched his team's game-winning home run, turned to an opposing athletic official and apologized for the wind.

He's meant every sorry word, too. Former Auburn AD David Housel, himself a legend in the business, once called Bo "the most sincere person I've ever known."

If not the most dynamic, as I wrote in 1989:

"Slight of build and stoop-shouldered, he walks as if his feet hurt. He frequently removes his wire-rimmed glasses for cleaning, forcing him to squint considerably. He wears Hush Puppies and a smile that says, 'Don't hit me.'

"His form of conversation is one of the most mimicked in SWC circles. The official Bo dialect is a series of darting, random thoughts connected loosely by a string of apologies, thanks, snickers and an occasional 'Just kidding,' all delivered in a secretive, even conspiratorial tone of voice."

Except for the Hush Puppies, he's no different at 54. Forever the Southern gentleman.

"I have not had a bad day at work," he says.

Elected to the College Sports Information Directors of America Hall of Fame last year, he wants to stay in the business. If there's any justice, he will. He's been lauded by everyone who's worked with him, and for reasons you might not expect.

Glen Stone, formerly TCU's sports information director, once told about a knock on the door of a press box restroom.

"Mr. Stone?"

"Yeah, Bo?"

"Is everything OK?"

"Uh, sure, Bo."

"You know," Stone said later, "that's the only time anyone has ever asked me that question in that situation."

Bo's thoughtful. Attended Vanderbilt on an academic scholarship. Graduated cum laude in classical studies despite working part-time in the sports information office and at the Nashville Tennessean.

Too nice to be a sports writer. Luckily he found his calling and match. Dr. Joanne Pryor-Carter counsels terminally ill patients and was recently elected vice president of the Texas-New Mexico Hospice Organization.

Joanne once told me she didn't find her job depressing because "the dying have so much to teach us about living. You never give up hope."

And if that doesn't define her, then perhaps this story does: Joanne and Bo are at a party when she notices the host's son thrashing in the deep end of the pool. Next thing you know, Joanne jumps in and hauls him out.

As heroine and child stand shivering and soaked among shocked party-goers, it figures how Bo reacts.

Apologizes for the dripping.

Preemptive note: No, Bo. Thank you.

E-mail [email protected]

 

[Cadet]

In my limited dealings with him, truly a class act. A loss for the profession.

 

[lone star scribe]

A big loss for the Big 12, and an even bigger one for the media. Bo was always looking out for us.

 

[Armchair_QB]

Kevin Weiberg and Tim Allen are a couple of ****ing idiots.

The way they ****ed Bo in the last year is one of the more unprofessional things I've ever seen. He's a better man than either one of the lightweight ****s who forced him out.

 

[Jake_Taylor]

What's the story with this and why would anyone ever want to screw Bo over?

 

[estreetband75]

Be interested to see how Bo got screwed.

A great guy -- when I was a student reporter at a Big 12 school, treated me the same way as a guy from KC or OKC.

 

[GB6824]

Bo is one of the nicest guys I've ever come across. Never been asked so much whether or not I had everything I needed. Hope he gets another job in the field quick.

 

[Armchair_QB]

Be interested to see how Bo got screwed.

A great guy -- when I was a student reporter  at a Big 12 school, treated me the same way as a guy from  KC or OKC.

They demoted him last year and have been trying to run him off ever since.

 

[SockPuppet]

No doubt that Bo is a great guy. However ...

As the main info guy at a BCS conference, Bo is not the guy you want constantly apologizing and stammering when dealing the media. If you ever heard the weekly FB coaches conference calls, it was embarrassing how Bo slobbered over the coaches and wrapped up their time by repeating, "Coach Blank, we'll let you get back to preparations.''

At that level, the conference info guy needs to be dialed in to what's going on. That way you don't always need to talk with the commish on every topic; the info guy can give you a quote or point you in the right direction.

Under Bo, B12 conference football media guides were a joke. One year, the two-deep chart for Missouri FROM THE PREVIOUS year was included. Names were misspelled, facts incorrect.

Sorry for Bo, but the Big 12 is better off.

 

[Hed bust]

No doubt that Bo is a great guy. However ...

As the main info guy at a BCS conference, Bo is not the guy you want constantly apologizing and stammering when dealing the media. If you ever heard the weekly FB coaches conference calls, it was embarrassing how Bo slobbered over the coaches and wrapped up their time by repeating, "Coach Blank, we'll let you get back to preparations.''

At that level, the conference info guy needs to be dialed in to what's going on. That way you don't always need to talk with the commish on every topic; the info guy can give you a quote or point you in the right direction.

Under Bo, B12 conference football media guides were a joke. One year, the two-deep chart for Missouri FROM THE PREVIOUS year was included. Names were misspelled, facts incorrect.

Sorry for Bo, but the Big 12 is better off.

First off, that's what the commish's job ought to be ... to answer questions about the state of the conference. He certainly shouldn't dodge issues under the cover of someone in the media relations dept. Too many of these commishes are suffy, suit-wearing bureaucratic jerks who never want to tell you anything except how much revenue the conference is generating or simply 'how great things are' with their league.
As for the comment that Bo'd let them "get back to preparations" I'll call bull**** again.
What sort of spine-tingling commentary do these coaches and players give during teleconferences anyway? Not much in the places where I've dialed in.
So what if Bo said the same thing over and over.
And if you are counting on using a Big 12 media guide to do stories, and not checking your stuff with net-based rosters or pure memory, then you are doing a job anyone on this board could do.
The schools' individual media guides are the final measuring stick.
(And did Bo put together and proof the Big 12 guide ever year? Alone?)
I don't think so. Let's share the pain there.
In my opinion, the Big 12 offices have for some time been seeking to employ a group that is much younger, age-wise, than Bo and a lot of the other greats in the profession.
The offices at all of these big conferences like to have a young bunch of people. Many of them do nothing except hand the keys to the Xerox machine to college-age "aides" come conference tourney time or gameday.
The industry could do so much more for itself.
Bo Carter was the opposite. He could never do enough.

 

[occasionally]

It only takes five words to describe Bo:

Nicest man on the planet.

 

[SockPuppet]

Hed Bust:
I question your knowledge of how things work. Weiberg is one of the most accessible commissioners around and he's forthright in answering questions. HOWEVER: There are plenty of minor issues where I don't feel a commish needs to be bothered. What if you've heard a tip about something? If you trust the people you're working with _ and I trust Bob Burda and Rob Corolla in the B12 office _ you can call them and they can call BS on the tip or let you know if it's worth pursuing. Burda knows what's going on. The NFL Network recently announced it was televising two bowls that have deals with the B12. Our writer was able to e-mail Burda to get some details and comments to do a story. It wasn't worth tracking down Weiberg.
The media guide deal? Hey, we ain't talking about a typo, folks. We're talking about a team's two-deep chart that was a year old. HB, if you don't think those guides should provide accurate reference material, then you're full of it.
AGAIN: No doubt, Bo Carter is the "nicest guy on the planet." That doesn't mean he's cut out to be a conference media guy.

 

[Hed bust]

Look, I don't want to get into a pissing match with you or anyone else on this board about most of the innane subjects that are discussed.
But don't tell me Bo isn't accessible.
I think Burda and Corolla are indeed good at what they do.
But Bo answers e-mails and makes himself accessible like they do.
It gets to be a turf thing in these conference offices and believe me, I DO know that for a fact.
People get their turf established and like to be the only ones contacted when certain things break.
I have no doubt that Bo was told at some recent point to stay out of certain loops.
Loops he at some point was privvy to.
I saw first-hand how certain people, who were contacts at a school's SID department, were not involved in crossover game-day activities.
i.e. - the baseball contact who wasn't plugged into any tasks in the football gameday pressbox.
I've seen feelings hurt over this.
But that's the status at some places. Other places seek to involve everyone on the staff in everything.
You get some egomaniacal folks working both in conferences and in the SID biz, in general. We see them all the time, at lots of schools.
Bo's never been one of them.
And the Missouri glitch in the league media guide? Well, **** happens.
Don't let it potentially stop you from doing your work or from being perfect in the little world you live in.

 

[Jesus_Muscatel]

Bo is one of my favorite people on the planet.

When he was at State, for some reason he was at the Holiday Inn when I pulled in for the first of God knows how many now trips to Starkvegas.

He apologized for the rain.

I'm not sure how and why this all came down, but I don't like it.

Bo did everything but make sure we all had our own receipts after he bought us dinner at a swanky (ahem, everything's relative) steak house in Omaha while covering the CWS.

Bo will bounce back on his feet, that much we know. He'll just be missed by hundreds of ink-stained wretches throughout the Big 12 and the SEC. Now that I think about, Bo, come back to State, and throw a skittish, unreasonable and prickly (pun definitely intended) MSU sports info type in a cannon from the circus down the street.

I'll light that sucker if you like. But the competition will be fierce ...

 

[Flip Wilson]

When I was an SID at a D-1 school, the conference SIDs got all the team information from the school SIDs and then sent PDFs of media guide pages for the SIDs to proof before the book went to press. So maybe, just maybe, that Missouri glitch wasn't Bo's fault, at least not totally.

And just to echo everyone else, Bo is certainly a great guy. I met him when I was an intern in the early '90s and have kept in contact off and on throughout the years. He's one of the best.

 

[GuessWho]

Agree with all the comments on Bo being an absolutely great guy. Have dealt with him for years.

But the guy would flat wear me out on the phone. I'll bet no one has ever had like a two-minute conversation with him unless they just hung up on him. You'd call him for something and at the end have to spend five minutes listening to him apologize for taking up your time.

But it was OK. Just part of his charm.